Established in 1983 to encourage young writers by bringing their work to the attention of readers and reviewers, it has since become a significant proving ground for newcomers.

It is awarded annually to two winners for a collection of short stories or novellas. Authors of winning manuscripts receive a cash award of US$1000, and their collections are subsequently published under a standard contract. The Press occasionally selects more than two winners.

On October 27, 2005, the University of Georgia Press rescinded author Brad Vice's Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction and recalled copies of his collection The Bear Bryant Funeral Train. Vice was alleged to have plagiarized sections of one story from Carl Carmer's book Stars Fell on Alabama (1934)[1] (a charge that Vice and others dispute).[2]